August 31, 2007

Who will spend $35 to have a Medium McChicken meal? I did

I had to catch a plane for Hamilton from Melbourne, Essendon airport. I travelled by a taxi and reached the Essendon airport thinking that I will have my lunch and browse (wireless) internet for a while before catching my plane in 3 hours. But, Essendon airport looked like a ghost aerodrome. There was no one at sight and the only café at the airport was closed for Sunday (duh). I was hungry. I looked around and asked a passer-by if there is a café nearby. He said, 'Nope, you have to travel to the nearest suburb to find one'. Since I had enough time, I thought I would go by a Taxi and get something to eat. I called for a cab and it came in few minutes.

'Hey! You called for a cab?' asked the Chinese cab driver.

I said, 'yes'.

"Where do you want to go?"

"To the nearest café. May be McDonalds or something."

"Oh, I see you are hungry. After having lunch, where do you want to go?"

"I want to come to this place (same airport) again. I want to get some lunch, may be – we will find a McDonalds or KFC and drivethrough, get lunch and come back."

I told him that I have to wait for another 2.5 hrs to catch a flight to Hamitlon and it will reach

He was puzzled and may have thought, 'what a moron spends at least $25 on cab charge and get a $7 meal' and asked, "When did you have your last meal?"

"I had breakfast at 12 am – a coffee and muffin."

"That means, just 3 ½ hours. When will you reach Hamilton?"

"At around 6.45pm."

"Can't you wait for another 3 hours for the next meal? See, the cab charge has already crossed $10. You could have spent this on a nice, big meal."

As we drove, he pointed out at a distant 'KFC sign post along the road and said, "Ok, there's a KFC, do you want to eat there or should we go to McDonalds only".

I found a Meccas on the left side of the road, "Oh, there it is. McDonalds. Drive through."

Over the speaker, the McDonald's girl asked, "What do you want, sir?"

I said, "I want a McChicken meal, large" to the driver. The driver shouted "McChicken meal? Try BigMac, it is worth and will fill your stomach". I said, "oh no, I want only McChicken meal."

"Is the order on the screen correct, sir? The screen shows 'McChicken meal large with coke'. The driverstill looking at the menu board (not looking at the screen below) shouts, 'No big Mac. Only McChicken large, fries, coke'.

After few minutes of communication struggle, "I shouted ok, the order is correct".

We wait behind four cars after paid the money, the girl delivers a pack that contains '3 coke and 2 ice creams and tells, 'Please wait for you 3 big Mac, sir'.

As I was trying to say, 'sorry, this is not I ordered. I wanted a large McChicken meal' – the driver winks at me and tells, 'Shh…You take all these, you have spent $25 for coming here. Take these and the big macs – you can have for lunch and dinner'.

I say, 'I don't eat big Mac – it contains beef - I want only chicken'.The driver nods his head left and right thinking, 'Hopeless, he is simply an idiot'. And the girl apologizes for the confusion made and hands me the large McChicken meal, fries and coke that costs $6.95.

"You should've taken those entire BIG Macs', the driver argues with nodding his head vigorously. We reached the airport and asked, 'How much the cabcharge is'. He says, '$29.50'.

Thus, I spent a whole $30 plus the $6.95 for eating my lunch, a McChicken meal.